secret identities: the asian american superhero blog

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

UPDATED (panel info has been added as well)
All week, the city of San Diego has been battening down the hatches in preparation for the flood of fanboys and fangirls inundating the streets tomorrow in time for Comic-Con.

While the SIUniverse team had hopes to be there this year (we're still listed in the program at booth #1221), schedules and circumstances have prevented us from taking part in this year's festivities (plus side? More room for Bernard Chang and his BLVD boys!). Also, this year marks the first time in over a decade that Epic Proportions will miss the party in San Diego.

But just because we won't be there doesn't mean the SIUniverse won't be well represented at the biggest con of the year. Check out below to find where in the exhibit hall members of the extended SIUniverse family can be found. And use this link to find a searchable map of the hall.

Bernard Chang: #1223

Giant Robot: #1729 & 1731

Erwin Haya: #D06

Martin Hsu: #4531

Benton Jew: #DD-23

Dustin Nguyen: #FF-04

Moreover, several SIUniverse alums can be found on panels throughout the week.

1:30pm - 2:30pm:
Shattering Convention in Comic Book Storytelling: Moderated by Racebending.com, this panel of comic book authors discuss
their experiences writing diverse and innovative work for big
franchises, indie, small press, and web comics. Gene Yang (Avatar: The Last Airbender) joins Brandon Thomas (Miranda Mercury) and Gail Simone (The Movement) to discuss diversity without stereotyping, creating compelling heroes and villains, and reader advocacy.
[Room 23ABC]

3:30pm - 4:30pm: First Second: Gene Yang and Paul Pope In Conversation:First Second authors Paul Pope (Battling Boy) and Gene Luen Yang (Boxers & Saints)
discuss their creative process, their magical-realist storytelling
techniques, and their exciting upcoming books -- projects that each
author has been working on for the past five years.[Room 26AB]

Hope everyone has fun in sunny southern Cali, and we'll see you all at New York Comic-Con this fall!

Friday, November 9, 2012

I inherited my love of comics from my dad. He was a huge Marvel fan
and when my brother and I found his old collection of Iron Man,
Spider-Man, and Thor comics, we were hooked. It never really occurred
to me as I was growing up, but as I was about college age, I noticed
that my favorite comics lacked heroes that looked like me. Though many
of my favorite titles were drawn by Asian artists, there were hardly any
Asian heroes in the pages. I was pretty disappointed, but the
revelation didn’t put me off comics. In fact, I expanded the types of
comics I collected because the super hero genre just wasn’t holding up.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I ordered a copy of Secret Identities and waited with great
anticipation. Would this be the Asian American equivalent of the
Milestone Universe, a super hero universe featuring Black super heroes
created in the early 90s. Would this anthology encourage the big two to
feature more Asian American heroes? I conjured all sorts of hopeful
maybes.

It arrived at my doorstep and I tore into the packaging like a mad
wolverine to get to its contents. I couldn’t wait to read about super
heroes that looked like me. But as I turned the pages, I felt my brow
furrow. These weren’t hopeful stories of heroes doing super human deeds.
These were angry stories that sought to punish the White Man for years
of oppression.

To be fair, not every story came from a place of anger. But the
overall vibe of the collection was so angry and bitter that I hid the
thing in a dark place on my shelf. I couldn’t recommend this to my
non-Asian friends for fear that they’d feel like they were being
attacked. I mean, I’m a pretty angry and bitter person in general, but
even I felt put off by the overall tone.

These weren’t the heroes I was looking for. These weren’t the stories I had been waiting for.

A Second Glance

Needless to say, I was a bit hesitant when the Secret Identities crew
contacted me earlier this year to contribute to their second anthology,
Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology. I nearly
declined, but I felt that maybe I’d have an opportunity to be part of
the solution, to tell a story that featured Asian characters that wasn’t
bitter or angry. After some soul searching, I agreed.
I was sent a few scripts to consider and already, my fears were put
to rest. These were the kind of stories that I had been looking for. The
one that spoke to me the most was Howard Wong’sMaster Tortoise and Master Hare. As you might guess, it’s a retelling of the classic Tortoise and Hare fable set in ancient China.

One of my biggest concerns was creating a unique look for Master
Hare. To me, the definitive long-eared action hero is Stan Sakai’s Usagi
Yojimbo. I was afraid that my love for Stan and Usagi would creep into
my Master Hare. I hid all my Usagi books and my Stan Sakai sketchbooks
and collected screen shots of Kung Fu villains and photos of hares.
With Master Hare somewhat settled, I went on to design Master
Tortoise. Again, I had to push out childhood favorites out of my mind. I
drew a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when it first hit the
airwaves in the late 80′s. Their head shapes, body contours, hands are
all second nature to my drawing hand. I can TMNT with the best of them.
So I made a concerted effort to lean on my reference photos of actual
tortoises. Even so, you can see the TMNT influence in Master Tortoise’s
limbs.
I had an absolute blast drawing the story and playing with these
characters. I was pretty pleased with the work and couldn’t wait to see
how it fit into the rest of the anthology.

Shattered, A Triumph

I was absolutely elated when I read through the preview copy of Shattered
that we creators were sent. This anthology is exactly what I had been
looking for. Rather than spending time trying to shame the White Man
for years of oppression, this collection concentrates on telling good
stories that feature Asian leads. This is a comic I would be proud to
share with absolutely everyone I know.
It’s a much more subtle statement than the first collection. It’s not
trying to shame you for ignoring the plight of Asians in America. It’s
telling good stories that are universal in relate-ability and proving
that you can do so while featuring minority leads. It’s a powerful
statement and one of the reasons I think this is such an important work.

Shattered is on shelves now. If you’re in the DC area and haven’t yet picked up a copy, you can come on down to Busboys and Poets on Monday from 6:30pm to 8:00pm for a signing. I suggest grabbing food at Chinatown Express before to stuff your face full of dumpling and noodle goodness.
And if you’d like to hear from some of the other contributors, here’s a list of us who have blogged about our experiences:

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Tempest, the Child Assassin Featured in Shattered, The Asian American Comics
Anthology, Out Now

by Kai Ma

Her name
is Tempest—and no, the moniker has nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy. The
name, rather, is a nod to the storm that occurred the night she was kidnapped
from her bedroom as a child. She’s a 13-year-old assassin, trained and raised
by a covert organization that shaped her into a merciless killer. She’s also the
character I created, with artist Eric Kim, forShattered, the Secret Identities comics anthology that dropped November 6.

What goes
into creating a comics character? This was new for me. My comics background
didn’t go far beyond thumbing through Archie and Ranma ½, devouring Joe Sacco’s Safe
Area Goražde and Palestine, or
watching My Neighbor Totoro as
a teen on acid. But I had to start somewhere. I re-read some Ranma, the beloved gender-swapping
martial arts Japanese manga series, and Love
and Rockets, by alt-comics pioneers Los Bros Hernandez, as well
as Shortcomings and the Optic Nerve series
by Adrian Tomine—who illustrated this week’s excellent Sandy and prez election-related
cover art for The New Yorker.

The story
began to unfold, along with Eric’s artwork. On the eve of her 13th birthday,
Tempest is nearly the perfect assassin: a killer without ties to others,
without even a sense of self. During a crucial battle, she kills her masked
opponent. Once she discovers the face behind the mask, she realizes she has
made a horrifying mistake and vows to never kill again. She escapes—as depicted
in Eric’s early sketches.

A few years ago, I was in a play called Songs of The Dragons Flying To Heaven (by the most amazing playwright, Young Jean Lee) and while on tour (Portland, Oregon & Rotterdam), I came across this story by Maggie Koerth of CNN.

A prostitute from Canton from the 19th century married a pirate. Later
on, after her husband died, she took her husband's position as head
pirate and lead her fleet to rule the oceans of Asia. The British could
not defeat her and they finally offered her amnesty if she stopped her
pirating ways. She lived till the ripe old age of 69 and died a wealthy
lady who owned a gambling hall.

This short report resonated with me so strongly and it spoke to my soul.

I quickly forwarded it to Young Jean and she agreed that it was an amazing story.

I folded the paper I had printed it out and put it on a my messy bookshelf and forgot about it.

Fast Forward to 2010

I met cartoonist Robin Ha while I was doing a reading of Dean Haspiel's comic at at a Brooklyn arts festival. We said mumbled hello to each other but that was about it.

A few
months later, I found myself sitting at Robin's desk at her studio
while she wasn't there. The kind guys and gals of then cartoonist
studio Deep 6 let me do whatever it is I do (a combination of writing,
drawing and fretting over minutiae).

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

When I was contacted by the Secret Identities crew to contribute a story to their second graphic anthology, Shattered,
I jumped at the chance. Then when they sent out a call to help with
some inking chores I again jumped at the chance and got to ink a 10 page
Shaolin monk vs. zombies story called Qi Lai!, pencilled by Dheeraj Verma and written by Roger Ma (Zombie Combat Manual).
Then when the SI guys reached out to see if someone could help with the
tail end production of the book to assist prepping files, paginating,
tracking edits and sending it off to The New Press for final proofing I was all in.

Now, I don't write this to make you think, "Boy, those guys sure needed a
lot of help! What a bunch of lazy drunks!" No, I wrote it to point out
what a massive and coordinated undertaking it was to put this book
together. To make a point that ALL the people who took part in this book
did so on top of their already busy schedules and found the time to
contribute because they understood the importance of this project and
have a passion for not only sequential art but of the overall mission of
Secret Identities. All this despite the fact that they actually are a
bunch of drunks. Just not lazy ones.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Asian American comic book anthology “Shattered”, in stores this week!
Originally posted at baophi.com-----------------------------by Bao Phi and G.B. Tran

The Asian American comic book anthology “Shattered” is in
stores this week, and widely available for order. Added to my bucket
list: a character concept of mine is included in it, illustrated by
acclaimed graphic novelist G.B. Tran, author of Vietnamerica.A bunch of us are doing special posts about
Shattered. Here are some notes regarding the genesis of this project,
from me and G.B., as well as an exclusive look at some sketches and
early process that G.B. was gracious enough to send to me.

I was asked by my friend Walidah Imarisha, a fellow geek writer of
color, to submit work to a radical sci fi anthology she was putting
together. The opportunity lit a fire under me, to write out a concept I
had stewing in my brain for quite a while: an apocalyptic tale where
Asia and the Middle East are blamed for a mysterious zombie outbreak
that devastates middle America, causing the East and West coasts, and
Canada and Mexico, to wall off Middle America.

Though no one knows or claims credit for the outrbreak, Asian
Americans and Arab Americans are put into hard labor camps in the middle
of the country, to both incarcerate them on suspicion of being
traitors, and also to draw the zombie hordes away from the surviving
populations on the coasts.
I had been meaning to explore these themes for some time. As a
lifelong fan of sci fi, cyberpunk, and fictions involving
utopia/dystopia, I often encountered work written by Western writers
that envisioned China or Japan as a dominant global superpower, or the
ones responsible for causing some type of apocalypse. However, race was
often unexplored in those fictions, and while there was no shortage of
Asian cultural appropriations, there was always a lack of actual Asian
and Asian American characters.

If history has taught us anything, it’s this: if Asia becomes a
superpower, or causes some catastrophe, the ones who will suffer the
most from it especially in America, is Asian Americans. We would
receive none of the benefits, and all of the blame.

The good news: Walidah accepted my submission. The bad: the
publisher fell through. The good news: fine fellows Keith Chow and
Jerry Ma contacted me and asked me to submit a character concept for
their new Asian American comic book superhero anthology, Shattered.
Even better: they paired me up with G.B. Tran, the artist and author of a
book I deeply love and respect, Vietnamerica. Imagine you’re me: a
spoken word poet raised in the hood who grew up addicted to Chris
Claremont’s run of X-men, grew up wanting to see more substantial Asian
American characters in comics, then I get to be included in an anthology
– *and* my concept is illustrated by G.B. Tran? It’s a dream come
true.

Here are some concept sketches and thoughts from the man himself: G.B.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

I’ve been asked how a newcomer such as myself ended up collaborating
with the legendary creator Larry Hama, a respected veteran of the
industry for the new Asian American comics anthology SHATTERED. Here’s
the actual story:

It was exactly two years ago from today, funnily enough. My very
first encounter with the writer/artist and former DC and Marvel editor
wasn’t at a convention or store signing. It was at a very crowded
cocktail fundraiser at a Manhattan art gallery for the Asian American
Arts Alliance, a nonprofit community organization. I happened to be
invited at the last minute by Ken Chen, the Executive Director of the
Asian American Writers Workshop and a lifelong comics nut ( I believe he
did his masters thesis on Chris Ware). Larry was good naturedly
circulating anonymously in the crowd until Ken spotted him and
introduced us. It came out in the conversation that in the ’70s young
Larry had been part of the Basement Workshop, an arts activist and
social justice group which spawned many of the New York City Asian
American arts nonprofit organizations you see today. As someone who
worked in the Asian American non profit sector for years, I was tickled
to death to find we had several friends in common because of this.

Larry, who is known for his work on GI Joe, Bucky O’Hare, Elektra,
Wolverine, is a pioneer for fighting racial and gender stereotyping in
comics characters. He has a long history of creating unapologetically
strong female characters like G.I. Joe’s Scarlett and pushing characters
like the ninja Storm Shadow beyond the typical villainous Asian
caricatures of the time. A genial and charismatic guy, he had a
neverending stockpile of amazing and entertaining stories of those days.
We had a terrific conversation.

Fast forward several months. My original pitch in collaboration with
the very talented Toronto based artist Craig Yeung had been accepted by
the folks at SHATTERED but I was told there was another story with some
similar themes. Could I change the setting somehow? I didn’t really
have any good ideas.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Volume Two in the Secret Identities comics anthology series has finally dropped and is now available.
I contribute a few pages, illustrating writer Jamie Ford’s EC Comics
pastiches. Here’s one of my mock covers that appear in the book, done
in classic Tales From The Crypt style, or as close to it as I can get, at least.
I get a kick out of the idea of “Chuckie Chan”. Created with Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop.

While the first collection focused on the conventions of traditional superhero comics, this new volume explores some darker and edgier genres to subvert and shatter Asian stereotypes.

The book features an impressive lineup of contributors, including leading comics creators Bernard Chang, Sean Chen, Cliff Chiang, Larry Hama, Sonny Liew, Takeshi Miyazawa, Christine Norrie, Greg Pak, G.B. Tran, Gene Yang and more, as well as folks from the film and literary world like Tanuj Chopra, Michael Kang, Jamie Ford, Gary Jackson and Bao Phi.

I managed to slip something in the book too.I had the great privilege of contributing a short piece for Shattered's character gallery, with the visuals supplied by the artist/editor Jerry Ma. My character: Angry Asian Man, of course. I actually have to thank Jerry, who had been bugging me since the first anthology to contribute a character.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Secret Identities, Shattered: My Relationship with Comic Books, and the Genesis of PUSH

Originally published at Reappropriate.co
---------------------------by Jenn Fang

For me, comic books aren’t mere entertainment.

As a kid (and still today), I was fascinated by superheroes and their
stories. I was a fan of Superman, Batman, and the X-men. Although some
of it was basic glee at following the tales of men and women fighting
crime in brightly-coloured tights, I think part of my fascination with
comic books was my identification with the superheroes in their pages.
To me, that is the strength of the comic book medium: they aren’t just
childish fantasy. Comic books tell stories of characters that serve as
archetypes of human emotion and experience, and when comic books are
considered in that context, one can find them capable of highly nuanced,
fascinating, and overwhelmingly mature commentary on humanity and human
nature.

Thus, I think the best comic book characters are those that speak to
universal experiences. Superman isn’t just a Man of Steel; he is an
immigrant whom I find most compelling as Clark Kent, an adopted alien
trying to fit in among men. Batman isn’t merely a man dressed in a giant
Bat-suit; his story speaks to the fragility of life, the relationship
between grief and madness, and how the human mind can (or cannot) walk
the tightrope between sanity and sociopathy. The X-men are, and were
conceived as, a commentary on the civil rights movement. While most
comic book characters maintain their popularity because of some
ill-defined “cool factor” that render them little more than “good guys
in tights”, the most enduring characters are those who have transcended
to become a symbol that speaks to particular facets of the human
experience.

The one weakness of comic books is that, for so long, they have been
written by White men for predominantly White male readers, and thus
there is a lack a diversity in characters that speak to the experiences
of non-White, non-male readers. Many female characters suffer from what
feminist writer Laura Mulvey
coined as “to-be-looked-at-ness”; that is, they are primarily written
in a voyeuristic, rather than a narrative or humanized, light. Female
characters are rarely written in a manner that encourages the reader to
identify with them, or to perceive the story through their eyes; instead
female superheroes (particularly those in the Golden and Silver Age of
comics) are typically mere props to satisfy the male gaze — and often
stereotypical ones, at that.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

hi friends! I hope all my fellow NYCers survived the
hurricane safe and sound. my area of BK was thankfully untouched; I am
so freaking grateful to have had power through this whole ordeal.so the official launch date of Secret Identities is rapidly
coming upon us (remember, remember, the 5th of November, woooo!)
although you can still pick up an early copy if you’re in the NYC area
and get to visit the Museum of Chinese in America, which I highly
suggest doing. Right now through February they have an amazing API
comics exhibit up featuring work by fine folks like my dear friend Alice Meichi Li
and people I have had the great pleasure and privilege of paneling
with, like Larry Hama and GB Tran, all of whom also contributed to SI!

I was approached by Keith at
the beginning of the summer and asked to contribute to the book. I
almost could not believe that I was going to be in a real published
anthology and consequently sat on the news for months, although I was
dying to tell everyone (and now all of you have to get flooded with news
about this, muwahaha). but I cannot even begin to describe how huge of
an honor this is for me.

I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. actually, when I started at NYU
I’d started out in the psychology program with the goal of becoming a
therapist (L O L HOW MINDS CHANGE) and then realized it was really not
for me. but by then it was too late to change majors since I’d dived
right in, so I just rode out the program, which I finished early, and
turned my goal elsewhere, and in my sophomore year of college really got
into drawing comics. I started Angry Girl in a very transitional and
turbulent summer between my junior year and the start of my last
semester and it has taken me further than I ever could have imagined.

for the anthology I drew a two-page thank-you comic for Dr. Jan and Marica Vilcek, founders of the Vilcek Foundation,
an organization that gives grants to immigrants working in the arts and
sciences. The Vilceks themselves are immigrants, having left
Czechoslovakia for the States in the sixties and becoming superstars in
their respective fields of medical research and art history. The comic
was written by Jeff Yang, one of our editors for the anthology.